Swan Queen Week: Sunday: Stay The Night
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: SQW Challenge Response, Tropes&Cliches, Awkward Situations. Post-'Witch Hunt' of Season 3. Emma and/or Regina decides to have Emma and Henry stay at Regina's place instead of the Bed&Breakfast. The awkwardness comes, in spades, the next morning when Snow and David drop by for a surprise visit.


Title: Swan Queen Week: Sunday: Awkward Situation

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: ABC and Disney own Once Upon A Time and all associated characters. This story is in response to the challenge put forth by and for "Swan Queen Week" ( ), specifically the third bi-annual event, "Tropes & Cliches". Story contains descriptions and allusions to an 'Adult' relationship between two women. If this offends you, you always have the right to exercise your free will, and not read it.

Rated: M (for themes, content, and language)

Summary: Post-'Witch Hunt' of Season 3. Emma and/or Regina decides to have Emma and Henry stay at Regina's place instead of the Bed&Breakfast. The awkwardness comes, in spades, the next morning when Snow and David drop by for a surprise visit.

Stay The Night:

"Thanks again," Emma whispered to her companion, "you know, for doing this. I know, uh, I know how hard this must be for you."

"Do you?" Regina whispered back, harshly.

"Yeah," Emma snapped back, though still whispering, "I do."

The brunette looked down shamefully, recalling exactly how she'd treated this woman when she'd first come to Storybrooke. That she could actually feel shame for those actions now spoke a great deal to how much she'd changed over the years. One had to respect that.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, eyes closed, trying desperately to hold back the tears. "It's… harder than I expected. Seeing him, knowing him, having him look at me and, and not know me. At least with you, he acknowledged you as his parent."

"No, he acknowledged me as his birth mother," Emma returned her sigh. "For a while there, I was nothing more than a cool older sister or college-age friend. I wasn't his parent until… well, anyway. The real him knows you. And don't worry, we'll find a way to break this new curse. He'll remember you and, and things can go back to the way they were before."

"Oh really?" Regina scoffed, finally pushing off the door frame to Henry's room.

Of course, in the 'current' curse, Henry had never lived in Storybrooke, so while it was and always had been *his* room, it was now just a guest room in Regina's mansion. For the past hour, the two women, both mothers of the child resting in that room, had just stood there, silent in the door frame, watching him sleep. It was only when they were sure that he was in a deep sleep that Emma had first spoken.

"What is that supposed to mean?" the blond snapped, following.

"You truly think that things will actually go back to 'the way they were before'?" Regina mocked. "You are even more naive than your parents. Things can never go back to that. I won't let it."

By now they'd reached the upstairs sitting room, although a part of Emma thought it was more fitting as a poker room than anything else. Being mindful of how sound carried through the large house, the women were careful to close the door after them, and also to moderate their voices accordingly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Emma held up her hands. "What exactly did you think that I meant? I was talking about how you and I and everyone risked everything to go to Neverland to rescue our son—yeah I said _our son—_from his youth-obsessed great-grandfather. And while we didn't exactly have a long time to get used to it, I remember that things were pretty good between us. _That_ is what I want us to 'get back to', Your Majesty!"

Regina bowed her head, covering her eyes and shaking her head pitifully. "I'm sorry," she said again, the tears sounding much closer to the surface all of a sudden. "I just, I thought, well that you, but, I, I'm just sorry."

Emma breathed a slow sigh, watching the woman deconstruct before her. "You thought I meant like when I returned from the Enchanted Forest with my… with Snow. How everyone didn't trust you. How I kept Henry away from you. How you were still the villain. Sorry to surprise you, Regina, but that isn't what I meant at all. Henry is your son too. Whether he remembers it or not."

Looking up at the blond, tears shining in her eyes but thankfully not falling, yet, the black-haired woman shared a brief smile of relief and gratitude with her once-rival. Then old habits reared and took hold as her manners reminded her of what a good hostess was supposed to do at this juncture.

"Would you care for a drink?"

"I'd love one," Emma said, grateful.

Regina poured and handed the other woman a glass of her 'famous' apple cider. Memories of the first night they'd met hung in the air like ghosts.

"So," Regina began the conversation, sitting down in across the round card table from Emma, "how have things been? What's been happening in your life? Your lives?"

Emma nodded in acknowledgment of what was truly being asked and after a brief sip, she answered. "We've been good. Henry's been good. He's a bookworm no matter what, so he's doing good in school. Not straight A's, but always above ninety percent. He, uh, he kept pestering me about taking him on one of my jobs, which is why he's treating this whole mess like it's one big vacation. No girlfriends, yet, thank god. But he's got a few good friends from school. Occasional sleepovers, hanging out after school, all that. He's doing good, Regina."

The woman smiled, thankful for the information. Mostly out of politeness, but she couldn't deny that a part of her was at least mildly curious, she asked, "And yourself? What has Emma Swan been up to for the past year?"

The Savior took a slightly larger drink of her apple cider before answering, telling Regina most of the story right there.

"Met a guy, dated him for several months, and turns out he was a dirty animal the whole time," she replied. "A flying monkey to be precise. Boy can I pick them or what?"

"Well, nobody expects you to find your True Love the first time out," Regina commented. "Or, you know, the first few times out. Would this one make number five or ten?"

Emma laughed out loud.

"Oh shut up!" she yelled. "Like you can talk. You met your true love, and then he was killed in front of you. My parents met and they've been through so much struggle, and they're still fighting to stay together through so much. I'm starting to think that it isn't even worth it."

"It's worth it, Emma," she said. "After everything that I've been through, that your parents have been through, that everyone in this town has been through, I know what I'm talking about. It is worth it."

"Doesn't seem like it sometimes," she finished off her drink.

"No, I suppose it doesn't, does it?" Regina followed suit with her own glass.

They both sat there in contemplative silence for several minutes.

"Look," Emma finally spoke up, thinking back on all the 'wrong things' they'd said to each other over the years, and where they stood now with... everything, "I know that things with us are upside down right now…"

"Emma," Regina tried to say something, but the blond held up her hand for silence.

"No, hold on, be quiet and hear me out," she said. "I know that things haven't always been… pleasant between us. Hell, we hated each other from the start. We're as opposite as you can get and we really only have one thing in common, and we fight over that like cats and dogs. We tend to fight each other more than beside each other, but when we have managed to work together, we managed to pull through. So yeah, maybe we're made to break, as they say, but you know what? I don't mind. You are my friend, Regina Mills. I just wanted to say that out loud, while I had the chance."

The brunette finally lost the fight against the tears.

"Hey, uh, you OK?" Emma asked. "Want me to draw the curtains while you kill the lights so nobody will see the big bad Mayor crying her eyes out from me calling her my friend? You know I'm only teasing, right?"

Regina nodded her head, but she couldn't seem to answer.

Emma just sat there awkwardly as Regina continued to bawl her eyes out, unsure what to do now. It wasn't like she had all that many girlfriends in the first place, and those she did weren't the weepy sort in the first place. Finally, things got to the point that she felt like a monster just by continuing to silently sit by while a woman that she claimed was her friend was crying uncontrollably, despite being sure they were tears of happiness. Getting to her feet, Emma made her way around the table and knelt next to the seated Regina. The moment she did, she found her arms instinctively going around the crying brunette and the woman curling into her like a child with its mother. The orphan girl could not even begin to say how many times or how much she'd wished for such a thing growing up. That she could now provide it for her friend made all the awkward embarrassment and emotional heartache worth it for this one moment of comfort.

"Hey," she whispered, to the weeping woman in her arms, ignoring the awkwardness of kneeling while holding a sitting person, "It's OK. It's gonna be OK. Hey, don't let this dull that fire that I always see in your eyes, all right? When I'm all up in my shit, I still want you to call me on it. I know that we'll be fighting and breaking each others hearts again before too long, so what? I don't mind having you as my friend, Regina. I don't mind the fights or the arguments, or the games, or even you tossing me around with magic all the time. I don't mind it at all." Going with her instincts at this point, she kissed the side of the dark haired woman's head, the same way she might have kissed Henry. Only… no kiss she'd ever given Henry had ever felt like this one had.

"Wlloosydenite?" she felt more than heard the mumble against her shoulder.

"What was that?" Emma asked, not daring to extract herself from her friend.

"Will u say da nite?" a slightly more articulate mumble came forth.

Chuckling at the absurdity of the moment, her shoulder shaking with mirth, she repeated, "What?"

Having been startled out of her tears, enough to sit up and sniff a little at least, Regina looked at her with annoyed anger shining from her eyes alongside the tears. "Oh, you! Will you stay the night? I know that you intended to go back to your parents after dropping off Henry, but… please?"

Emma smiled and, again going with her instincts, cupped her hand against Regina's face, fascinated when the dark woman closed her eyes and leaned into the touch. "Please, what?" she whispered, still teasing.

Regina's eyes opened and she asked, more deliberately this time, and perhaps with greater meaning than either of them understood at the moment, "Are you going to stay the night, Miss Swan?"

Sensing perhaps only a fraction of what was truly being asked, not to mention the consequences of whatever her answer may end up being, Emma briefly allowed her fear of commitment to rear its ugly head and she pulled back slightly. "I, uh, I, um, well, I…"

Seeing her friend fall back into old habits of running first and realizing what she'd done long after, Regina fought to salvage the situation as quickly and effectively as she could, by being her blunt, crass, rude, and regal self. "Calm yourself, Miss Swan," she said in the hard tone normally associated with Mayor Mills on the warpath, or the Evil Queen on an evil trip. "You spending the night in my home does not mean we're bound for life. So, are you gonna stay the night, or not?"

Suddenly, the blond shot to her feet and began to pace around the place. Seeing that her friend was more upset by her offer than she was by any perceived rejection of the offer, Regina kept her peace and silently watched as Emma tried to work through the emotional turmoil she was suddenly feeling.

"I," she started, stopped, and started again several times. "I. You, I. I know, I know what it is you're asking, and it is, it shouldn't be a big deal. Just a sleepover, right? Henry has them all the time. And I trust you. I trust you more than anyone else in town, except maybe my parents, or Henry. But."

"But?" she prompted when Emma failed to continue.

"But why do I suddenly feel like it's… more?" she asked, sounding confused by her own answer. "I mean, I know what you said. And logically, I know what you meant. But, I _feel_ like there is more to this all of a sudden. Was there something in those drinks?"

"Just cider," Regina answered, slowly beginning to grasp what Emma was saying. And she was right. There was more going on here than just a friendly offer to sleep over. "How long… have you… I'm not sure how to ask this…"

"I don't!" Emma said a bit too quickly. Then, surprised at her own reaction, she remarked, "I don't… do I? Are we sure there wasn't anything in the cider?"

"Just alcohol and fermented fruit juice," Regina grumbled at the second shot at her personally-prepared concoction.

"I'm straight!" Emma suddenly declared.

"And so am I!" Regina declared right back.

"So why does this feel so… awkward?" the blond asked.

"I don't know," the brunette answered honestly. "Have you ever been, how do they put it? Curious? When you were younger, I mean? Before Henry was born? Or since? Uh, pre-curse, that is."

"No, I… well, maybe," Emma said uncertainly. "Let's just say that 'Cruel Intentions' wasn't lying about girls practicing kissing, and it was a Home run by a hippy couple, and leave it at that. But nothing… real. Nothing like, like, like… this!"

"And what is… this?" Regina questioned, curious in spite of herself.

"This!" Emma made some wild gestures with her hands between the two of them.

"Our friendship?" she offered a guess.

"This… burning, smoldering, electric _chemistry_ between us!" she snapped. "I didn't even pay it any attention, and before now I was always angry with you for one reason or another. Sometimes I pitied you, sometimes I was afraid of you, but…" she trailed off.

"But what?" Regina whispered, in awe of what she was hearing, what she was witnessing before her very eyes.

"But it was always there, wasn't it?" blue eyes met brown, accusing, asking, begging. "This… electric feeling. I've felt it, but always figured it for nerves. But it has never gone away, no matter what. Always there, under the surface, fueling everything else that I did, that we did. Tell me I'm the only one that feels this. Tell me that and I can just blame it on unresolved homosexual tendencies or something. Tell me that and then I can start to repress it or something, and we can go back to how things usually are between us."

Regina was quiet, staring wide-eyed up at her friend and once-rival. Her tears were no longer falling, but the evidence of them were still more than prevalent, making her wide eyes appear even more so. Slowly, silently, she solemnly stood to her feet. Two quick steps crossed a distance that felt greater than the separation of worlds, and then it was gone in one quick action, an action taken in the heat of the moment and driven by instinct and passion.

Regina kissed Emma.

They pulled apart and the universe held its breath.

Emma stared at Regina, surprise the predominant emotion on her face.

Regina stared back at Emma, fear, worry, and hope intermingled in her eyes, while her expression was a carefully practiced neutral look saying nothing at all.

The blond Savior reached up and put one hand around the dark-haired queen's throat, and the other around her back to keep her from going anywhere. Said queen was very careful not to do anything at all with her hands. Whatever happened next would change everything that followed. She feared being slapped, or pushed away. She worried that she'd overstepped so many boundaries with that one action that she had finally pushed the Product of True Love past her limit and she would shortly find the life being choked out of her. And while a part of her hoped for it more than anything she had ever dared hope for—including the resurrection of her First Love, Daniel, and the respect and love of her child, Henry—what scared her more than rejection was the consequences of what might happen if Emma actually would…

Emma kissed Regina.

It was slow. It was gentle. It was soft. It was explosive and fast and uplifting and a freefall, all at once and more. Their whole bodies came alive, centered everything on their lips and what they felt from their contact with one another. It was, without exception, the best kiss either of them had ever had, no matter the partner or the experience. And then it was over.

Emma stepped back, taking her hands away from Regina's body, and took a deep breath, trying to ease her racing heart rate, her face flushed and her lips slightly swollen, or at least they felt that way. Regina was in just as bad a state, except she seemed more stunned by the reciprocation than the blond had been by the initial encounter, raising her fingers to briefly touch her tingling lips.

"OK, so… that happened," the blue-eyed blond stated.

Then she turned and looked confused at her friend and asked, "_Why_ did that happen?"

Coming to her senses, Regina rolled her brown eyes at the other woman and retorted with, "Why does anyone kiss at all, my dear? I think you were just kissing me back, at least that is what it felt like to me. What did it feel like to you?"

"That is not what I meant, and you know it," Emma growled, taking a step and a half forward, so they were close, but not close enough to kiss again. "Why did you kiss me first?"

"Do I need a reason?" she responded quietly, looking right into those warm blue eyes.

She took that last half step so they were practically nose-to-nose. Speaking just as quietly, she said, "I think that there wasn't nearly enough alcohol in those drinks to make either one of us lose our senses to the point of giving into latent 'experimenting' and neither one of us is really that… inclined. At least we certainly haven't broadcast that fact."

"Sex is sex, Miss Swan," Regina shrugged. "And my partners have always known the value of… discretion. What about you? You kissed me, too."

"Just because I was a thief and a runaway for most of my teenage years doesn't mean I didn't have a few… college experiences," she remarked with a teasing grin, looking back and forth between the dark-haired woman's ruby lips and her chocolate orbs.

"I hear stories about women's prisons in this land," Regina teased back.

"I've got stories that would make even you blush," Emma returned.

"I look forward to the challenge," she grinned, enunciating the last word so that her lips, teeth and tongue were on full display and would make her opponent want to kiss her all the more.

"Are we really going to do this?" she asked the former mayor after a heavy-breath-filled moment of time.

"Why not?"

"There are a lot of reasons _not_ to do this."

"There are?"

Their breathing was getting heavier, more ragged, and they hadn't done more than tease each other, not even touching yet. Both of them were practically vibrating on the spot. And still, neither one of them made the move that would push them over the edge they were fast approaching.

"Give me one, just one," Emma whispered, nose-to-nose with her ex-boss. "One good reason _to_ do this. And then I'll tell you mine."

Regina didn't even have to think about it. It was already on the tip of her tongue, and there wasn't so much as a flicker of hesitation before she said it, while Emma spoke at the same moment.

"I love you."

SQW

It was morning.

The Mayor's Mansion was a pretty big place, and a pretty cool place to spend the night, as Henry was discovering. He still didn't know why his Mom had brought him along on this case of hers, or what she was doing in the place at all, or how she knew all the people here. Didn't change the fact that he was with her on an actual case, and not in school or stuck in the apartment. True, he didn't have all his books or video games, but his iPad took care of most of the former and honestly this place was just too neat to care about the latter.

As for why they were here instead of the Bed & Breakfast, which by all appearances was the only place in town for visitors to stay at, he had no idea. Just that one minute his Mom was introducing him to the Mayor of this little hamlet called Storybrooke, and the next he was putting up his overnight back in a second floor bedroom in the lady's mansion. How awesome was that?

Henry Swan woke up and made his way downstairs, trying to find out which of the many rooms in the place his Mom had chosen, but then his stomach reminded him he hadn't eaten anything in over eight hours, and he changed his destination to the kitchen. Took him all of ten seconds to find the cereal, milk, bowls and spoons. Just something to tide him over till his Mom was awake and could tell him what their plans were for the day. If it was like her usual jobs, he fully expected to be ordering plenty of takeout. If, however—due to the unique setting—it was more like the weekends or when he didn't have school and her 'job' was later on, well you know what they say about a good breakfast.

Right as he was finishing off the last of his first, and apparently only bowl, Henry heard a loud knocking coming from the direction of the main foyer area. He waited, listening. The knocking came again, just as loud, but there were no sounds of anyone else in the house coming to answer it. He put away the empty bowl and waited, but the knocking came louder than before, sounding more urgent.

Now worried that it might be his Mom, locked out, or just as bad, someone looking for his Mom with a vital piece of information for her case, or worse… someone looking to hurt either him or his Mom, or even the Mayor, Henry got to his feet and made his way to the main foyer and the front door there. Because of the last option, Henry did not immediately open the door, instead peeking through the side-windows on either side of the door to see who it was. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that nice pregnant couple that his Mom said were old friends of hers. He still hadn't gotten a straight—honest—answer out of any of them as to exactly _how_ they and his Mom had met, but it was clear to him that Emma Swan trusted this David and Mary Margaret Blanchard, and that said enough about them.

Opening the door, he smiled in greeting and allowed them entrance.

"Henry!" Mrs. Blanchard exclaimed, looking quite surprised. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged, not really seeing anything wrong with the question, as this was the Mayor's home after all, and he doubted that she took in house-guests all that often. "My Mom somehow got the Mayor to let us spend the night at her place. I don't exactly know the details, but whatever it was, it worked. Can you believe this place? Hard to believe that she lives here alone!"

"Yeah, hard to believe," Mr. Blanchard remarked. Henry was assuming. Everybody had only called him 'David', whereas his very pregnant wife had been introduced to the fourteen-year-old as 'Mary Margaret Blanchard', so he assumed Blanchard was David's last name.

"Uh, where is your mom, by the way?" Mrs. Blanchard asked, looking around the foyer nervously. "And Regina? I mean, the Mayor? Are they around, or did they leave already?"

"I think they might still be asleep," he said. "There are a lot of rooms in this place and I haven't gotten to look through them all yet. Mom usually gets up about eight-fifteen anyway, so we should be seeing an appearance sooner or later. Hey, is this about the case?"

"Case?" they both gave him blank looks before suddenly it came back to them at the same moment.

"Right, the case," Mrs. Blanchard said, nodding her head, before looking to her husband for support.

"Yes… and no, actually," Mr. Blanchard answered hesitatingly. "We're actually here to see Regina, er, the Mayor. We were going to call Emma, your Mom, later on after we'd spoken to Regin—ah, the Mayor. About. It."

"OK," Henry nodded along, silently amused at how awkward things had turned. It was all he could do not to openly snigger at how they were acting around him.

There was a noise from upstairs, drawing the attention of all three of them.

"Huh," he grunted. "Mom must be awake by now. Let's go check and see."

"Wait, Henry!" David tried to stop his grandson, but the wiry kid was already charging up the staircase like he'd lived here his whole life. Oh, the irony.

The Charming Couple hurried, as fast as possible—which wasn't as fast as it used to be, hoping to catch Henry before anything happened. Not that they expected anything to happen. Regina loved Henry, after all. But after all these years, the two of them had adopted a standard cautious level of paranoia, especially when they were in the midst of a crisis. A crisis such as being cursed all over again and losing a year of time.

They caught up to Henry just as he reached the door to Regina's room. Not that he knew or had known that. He'd actually been opening all the doors to all the rooms on the second floor, which had given David and Snow a chance to catch up. But in the end they were not quick enough it would seem, as he flung the door wide open right as they got there beside him yet before they could say anything to stop him.

Time froze and the whole universe along with it.

Apparently the noise that the trio had heard downstairs was indeed Emma waking up. Or rather, it was Emma waking up Regina. In a most pleasant and appreciated way. Prior to them having an audience that is.

Fortunately, for theirs, Henry's, David's and Snow's sanity, they'd already… _finished_… waking up, and they were both covered at the time the door was slammed open.

That the blond and brunette were 'covered' _only_ by the covers and sheets of Regina's bed was what caused the sudden and overwhelming silence that permeated the atmosphere of the Mayor's private bedroom. A silence that was quickly interrupted as everyone's brains kicked back into gear.

"Henry!" Emma and Regina both shouted out in surprise and shame, the first sound to break the silence of the moment. Both clutched the covers tighter to themselves, unintentionally drawing the others body closer to their own in the action. In hindsight, they would privately admit to enjoying the sensations, if not the memory, yet if asked about it both would deny such an action even taking place.

"Sorry!" Snow cried out, reaching out and grabbing Henry by his eyeballs, so to speak, and dragging him out of the room. She just blindly reached out, cupped both hands over her grandson's eyes and force-marched him out of the room.

David, ever the gentleman, had turned around and closed and covered his eyes the moment his brain had fully processed what he'd just witnessed. Once he'd confirmed Snow and Henry were out of the room, he reached for and closed the door behind them while shouting over his shoulder (without looking), "Sorry! So sorry! Really, _very_ sorry!"

In the uncomfortable silence following their family's departure from the bedroom, Emma and Regina glanced at one another, then back to the door, before returning to look at each other.

"Well," the blond commented with a self-deprecating shrug, "this is going to be awkward."

_End_

Author's Note: So, Day 1 Challenge complete, for the most part. Normally, I'm more of an 'epic' writer, never releasing a chapter that is less than five thousand words, the average being around ten thousand though. Given that we're only given a little less than a month to complete these challenges 'on time' however, please understand and forgive me fore keeping these responses rather brief. Still, I'll try and keep them over my minimum limit of five thousand words per. Anyway, some of these are just going to be snippets, one-shots, scenes out of 'what-happens-between-the-episodes' kind of thing. Some could be the start of another epic that I'll never get around to finishing. :) Either way, I hope you all enjoy reading them and appreciate the challenge response. And be sure to check out the Swan Queen Week archive, there are loads of awesome stories, artwork and plenty of other things available that were created by a lot of talented people. Enjoy!


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